The characters motivations don't make sense because in a way they've been forced into various storylines thanks to Schism. While I enjoyed Schism very much, and have been loving ReGenesis equally, I was of the opinion and still am, that Marvel editorial forced these story lines upon Cyclops and Logan. They took little strands of threads and then extrapolated them into full blown story lines...after spending a good two or three years beforehand uniting the mutant species and building Utopia. I didn't think it made sense then and I still don't despite liking the results.

I have to admit that this whole event has felt incredibly disjointed and just an incredible mess. I believe the plan to have multiple writers and artists work on it (while good on paper) in execution just plain hasn't worked at all. The tie-ins have been better than the actual series for the most part. Act I was a bad start...as excited as I was at the start...my interest has been slowly waning. I might drop this frankly and read it when it's collected in trade in a few months.

I have to agree...Scott looks like New 52 Nightwing though, and that is a ridiculous redesign of his visor. Emma looks good I knew something bad was going to happen to the Extinction team lol but that was stupid. I guess we can now expect a Phoenix Avengers Vs X-Men toy line next year.

Also another thought...is the Extinction team considered the true Five Lights now? Or does Hope's team have some kind of destiny to save her?

This is interesting...I think I've made my views about Scott clear in the thread and in the Marvel thread. The reality though is that the event has been written so erratically that it's been tough to guess.

I think Marvel wouldn't have the balls to kill off Scott, despite The Last Stand taking that route. I too wouldn't care about The Protector, Luke dying I would care about since I'm a fan of Jess Jones. Bendis cares about Cage too much to suggest they kill him off though. It could be none of these who die though. I'm surprised we haven't had a casualty thus far. Maybe next act though.

I never read "Marvel Boy" but "Protector" has basically been a non-character throughout the Bendis run. I could care less if he died. They'll never kill Luke Cage; they have too few minority superheroes as it is, and he's definitely the most prominent one.

Yeah he sacrificed himself to kill Apocalypse... but then he came back... and he was infected with Apocalypse's spirit... and they got rid of it... then he was messed up in the head... then he had an affair with Emma Frost... then Jean died... again... and he's been knocking boots with Emma and getting progressively more darker and totalitarian ever since.

He was possessed by Apocalypse. The death part seems to have been retconned since though. Only being possessed by En Saba Nur seems to still exist, and I haven't seen a reference to his actual death ever in current continuity.

...Hope vs. The Scarlet Witch in a full-sized single-battle issue. And written by Gillen. This might be the only issue of "vs." that I pick up.

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That's not accurate. I mean, it's partly accurate, but you missed this part:

• And two fights weren’t enough for the last issue, so we packed in as many fights and fan-favorite characters as possible!
• Mini fights from the best creators in the business! Jeph Loeb, Arthur Adams, Stuart and Kathryn Immonen, Jason Aaron and many others!

Based on that, I expect ten pages of the "title bout," with the other fights relegated to single pages.

Those who are trade waiting or are planning on getting the hardcover for "Avengers Vs X-Men" might be interested in this. Seems like Marvel is loading up. As the link states, it will contain issues 0-12 of Avengers Vs X-Men, issues 1-6 of AVX, Avengers Vs X-Men Infinite Comics# 1, 6, and 9(I assume this is the digital stuff) along with Point One Material. Note the price. It's 85 bucks in Canada. Both discounted right now. This is one huge trade.

Jonathan Hickman joins superstar artist Olivier Coipel (SIEGE) to launch Act Two of the biggest Marvel event of the year!
What is Pax Utopia?
The Phoenix has come to Earth, and everything changes...
And the Scarlet Witch enters the fray!

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After five issues of waiting for the Phoenix to arrive, it's finally here and within the bodies of five X-Men -- Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Magik, and Colossus -- after Hope rejected it.

And...

This issue is actually good.

Oh, it's not without its problems, which I'll discuss momentarily, but AVX #6 actually does something interesting that puts us in Warren Ellis territory.

Five people have the power of gods, and they're not afraid to use it. If that means turning super-villains into power sources, if that means altering the environment of Africa's deserts to make them fertile, if that means reshaping the ocean floor, they'll do it.

But that's not without its problems.

Fixing humanity's problems and reshaping the Earth is, in theory, a good idea, but it's also not earned. Cyclops going before the United Nations and saying that war will stop, immediately, is a nice moment (and reminiscent of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, honestly), but ending war isn't the same thing as ending the human desire for war. Humans are a competitive species, and violence is hardwired into the genes. The Phoenix Five have good intentions, they see themselves as benevolent, but their benevolence masks the fact that they're still dictators and humanity will chafe under their yoke.

Which leads us back to the title of the comic -- Avengers Vs. X-Men. Because, of course, we have to have at least one sequence in the comic that supports that very simple concept.

What we get, I think, works, but, again, as with many of the conflicts in this title, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Beast walking out on the Avengers is probably the most sensible thing that happens, because even he recognizes folly when he sees it. The only thing that would make the fight in this issue make sense is if Cap's stated reasons for picking the fight are not the real reasons for the fight, if what he really wanted to do was to test the limits of the Phoenix Five's powers and an extraction mission to kidnap Hope was simply a convenient pretext.

And it does justify the last line of the comic. If Act One is the consequences of Cyclops crossing the line from reason to madness, Act Two is going to be the consequence of Captain America's own misjudgment.

I mentioned that the issue has a significant problem, and it's this.

Avengers Vs. X-Men #6 breaks the playground toys in a way that will be very difficult to fix.

There's a genie here that isn't easily put back in the box, there's no reason for anyone to ever trust Cyclops again. He's essentially achieved what Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants always wanted -- an Earth with the mutants in charge. Consider what the X-Men have done to the Earth. When the series ends at things return to the status quo ante bellum, the X-Men are going to be even more hated than they were, since they've just completely abused the power of the Phoenix and remade the Earth to suit them. And unlike House of M, this isn't an alternate timeline. This is "for reals."

Final thought.

As I said, I liked this issue. I think it's the best of the issues thus far, though I don't care a great deal for Coipel's artwork (his characters have a tendency to look a little squat).

Haven't read the issue yet, but from reading your review it seems my theory that Scott will either be killed or become a villain at the end of this thing seems more credible. Unless they explain he was under the influence of the Phoenix or something and not responsible for his actions. Although if the rumors are true and Bendis will be writing Uncanny this fall...would he want a Scott-less book? Or are we going to see a totally new direction for the Utopia folks? The ending of this has been hard to predict.

Haven't read the issue yet, but from reading your review it seems my theory that Scott will either be killed or become a villain at the end of this thing seems more credible. Unless they explain he was under the influence of the Phoenix or something and not responsible for his actions.

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There's enough evidence just in issue #5 to support the contention that Scott is "under the influence of the Phoenix." He and the other four all speak of their non-Phoenix-ed selves as other people. There does seem to be a greater integration of personality with the Phoenix force in issue #6, but there's also a several week gap between issues #5 and #6 in which that developed.